That's No Bum; That's Sir Ian McKellen!

No, Sir Ian McKellen was not holding a "will recite Shakespeare for food" sign on a Melbourne street corner, when a passerby recently tossed him a one-dollar coin. The veteran actor with a remarkable late-career renaissance in fanboy faves (X-Men, The Lord of the Rings) was literally waiting for Godot.

McKellen should be able to use this latest experience as a method actor -- he's currently starring in the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot, in which he appears as homeless man. The play opens this weekend at The Comedy Theatre in Melbourne, Austrailia, and McKellen certainly looks the part.

For the role, the thin actor wears tattered clothes and the rattiest beard he's probably ever had. He was catching a break on a bench, napping between dress rehearsals, when a good Samaritan dropped some money in McKellen's beat-up bowler hat.

McKellen is holding onto the coin as a good luck charm but offers his benefactor something for his money, "If that man would like to identify himself, we would like to invite him to come and see Waiting For Godot. And if he insists on paying, we'll knock a dollar off the ticket price."